The Man of Steel picks a new Arch-Enemy: Sir Isaac Newton!

“Stronger than a locomotive, Faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…. Look, in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!  IT’S SUPERMAN!!!!”

We should all remember those immortal words announcing the arrival of one of the world’s most beloved superheroes.  Like him or not, his books have been selling well for D.C, for over the last 80 years.  Following the trend of other super hero franchises of the past few years, Superman is getting another reboot movie coming out next year.  Titled The Man of Steel and directed by Zack Snyder it promises to be a good time at the movies.  The teaser trailer was recently released, and although I’m very much looking to this movie, there was one error of physics that just confused me, and let me down.

Let’s all take a break and watch the clip, and then come back and discuss it.  Let’s pay careful attention to about the 1:12 mark, where we see him flying through the clouds.

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An Introduction to Ballistics for Geeks, Writers, and Geeky Writers: Part 2 of Many

Welcome back!  Today, let’s talk about external ballistics.

Bullet coming from S&W by Niels Noordhoek

Anything and everything on earth is affected by gravity.  Objects fall towards the earth at a constant rate, known as the gravitational constant (9.8 m/s²) .  I hear those sci-fi writers again.  Yes, if we were on the moon, or Mars, or somewhere else, that constant would be different, and the ballistic flight will be different, but let’s get there in a bit shall we?  Impatient Sci-Fi writers!  As a quick reference, Moon Gravity is roughly 1/6th that of earth, and Mars is roughly 1/3. Newton tells us that an object in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.  So in a theoretical, gravity free environment, the projectile would just keep going straight, in the last direction it was propelled. Of course, Gravity isn’t the only thing that affects a projectile.  The medium it flies in also plays a big part, by adding drag.  The air itself slows the projectile down.  In a vacuum there would be no aerodynamic drag, and the projectile would keep its velocity, until acted upon by something else.

That Newton guy is everywhere isn’t he?

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